Archive

Bought the Vantec NexStar SATA/IDE to USB 3.0 Adapter from Challenger for S$59.90 (Member’s Price: S$53.91).

As the name suggest, it coverts your internal SATA/PATA HDD to USB 3.0, allow you plug and play the hardisk via USB port.

Last week, Dell announced the Dell XPS 14 Ultrabook as a new member to the XPS Ultrabook family. The Dell XPS 14 Ultrabook is already available in the Singapore market with a starting price of S$1,399.

Dell XPS 14 Ultrabook Speficitaions

If you are trying to get a laptop/notebook this year, you may have come across the buzz word, Intel Ultrabook. While the buzz word is not entirely new (it was announced at Computex in 2011), it has become more mainstream as OEM manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Samsung, Asus, Acer are producing more and more Ultrabook models.

So what is an Ultrabook? An Ultrabook is a set of laptop/notebook specifications set by Intel to the OEM manufacturers to follow and if they adhere to these set of specifications, their product can be classify as an Ultrabook. It is essentially a sub-category of laptop/notebook.

Google Chrome on iOS
Been waiting for this day! Google Chrome is finally here for iOS and it is an universal app! Played with it on both iPhone 4S and iPad 2 and it works beautifully, it has replaced Safari on my iOS devices!

The sync (bookmarks, history, tabs, preferences and devices) works great out of the box after entering my Google credentials!

Google launches quite a few things at this morning Google I/O 2012.

New gadgets like Google Nexus 7 (US$199) (Play Store Link – US Only), Google Nexus Q (US$299) (Play Store Link – US Only) and Google Triad Bookshelf Speakers (US$399) (Play Store Link – US Only).

The day has come! Apple launches iTunes Store in Singapore alongside with Hong Kong, Taiwan, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. iTunes Match will be available as well for S$31.98 per year! The iTunes store is live on my Mac, but it seems it has not yet been made available on my iTunes app on my iPhone.

Music pricing starts from S$1.28 for a single track and typical price for an album is S$9.98.

Let me start off this review by saying that the Nokia Lumia 900 is what the Nokia’s flagship Windows Phone 7.5 should have been. The Nokia Lumia 800 felt like a rush job and Nokia Lumia 900 felt just right. Unfortunately, Microsoft just killed all the current Windows Phones out in the market with the announcement of Windows Phone 8 by saying that all current Windows Phone will not be upgradable to Windows Phone 8 and that includes the Nokia Lumia series.

If you are still interested in getting a Nokia Lumia 900, it is currently retailing for S$849 (including taxes & without contract) at all 3 operators (SingTel, M1, StarHub) in Singapore. I do hope that Nokia have some sort of attractive trade-in offers for current Lumia owners to upgrade to a new Lumia with Windows Phone 8 that will be announced at Nokia World 2012 (wild guess).

Finally! Prices in both the iOS App Store and Mac App Store in Singapore are now displayed in Singapore Dollars (S$ or S$) instead of United Stats Dollars (US$). This means that the price of an app will not fluctuate because of the horrible currency exchange rate between Singapore and United States given by banks.

Last month, when I bought a US$0.99 app, my credit card bill will reflect S$1.30, but now the app just cost S$1.28. Apple uses very reasonable exchange rates, according to Google the exchange rate today (13:45 on Friday, 22nd June 2012) is:

Both SingTel and Samsung has pledge supports for Team Singapore for the London 2012 Olympics. Samsung will sponsor 60 Samsung Galaxy SIII (White) while SingTel will provide complimentary airtime and data subscriptions to allow them to keep in touch with their family back in Singapore.

For those who wants more details, the press releases from the 2 company are pasted below.